Battle stations over resiting of suffrage centenary memorial

The National Council of Women is bracing for battle with Auckland art's fraternity to keep the tiled suffrage centenary memorial in Khartoum Place.

"The National Council of Women is completely opposed to the relocation of the memorial," said the organisation's executive officer Lynda Sutherland.

"The Auckland City Council made a promise to NCW Auckland that the memorial would stay where it is," she said. "Any potential relocation is certainly viewed as the reneging on a promise or commitment."

The council's advisory panel for public art wants the council to reverse a decision in 2006 to keep the tiled memorial mural.

The panel, including chairwoman Trish Clark and Auckland Art Gallery director Chris Saines, are pushing to resite the memorial to open up the view, with a staircase from Lorne St to the $113 million Auckland Art Gallery upgrade in Kitchener St

The panel won the first round last week when the central business district board asked council officers to investigate and consult with stakeholders, including the memorial's artists and National Council of Women, about the practicality, timing and cost of resiting the memorial.

In a memo to the board, Trish Clark said the panel believed the central business district would be best served by a sympathetic relocation of the mural. "We see it as eminently desirable to open up the connection from Lorne St to Kitchener St, unifying this important urban space and making a stronger vertical connection simply and elegantly.

She said that to suggest the relocation of the mural equalled denigration of suffragists was insulting.

But Margaret Wilson, a member of the National Council of Women's Auckland executive, is horrified at the prospect of the memorial being "bowled for the sake of a staircase".

She said the Auckland executive was happy to keep the lines of communications open, "but we do not want it resited".

Auckland City councillor Cathy Casey said it was "dishonest, wasteful and disrespectful" to be moving the memorial.

Several prominent dames helped to save the memorial from an attempt to move it in 2006. On that occasion art gallery dealer Gary Langsford said the tiles had no aesthetic merit and belonged "in a 1970s craft shop".

The memorial was unveiled in 1993 by Irish President Mary Robinson and Governor-General Dame Catherine Tizard.

The issue will be considered next week by the council's arts, culture and recreation committee.